Tag Archives: Holland America

The port of Shimizu is located between Tokyo and Osaka. With Mount Fuji looming large in the background, views from the port are spectacular on clear days. Fuji is a registered UNESCO World Heritage Site. A nearby pine tree grove … Continue reading →

We started our journey on the Amtrak Cascades train from Washington State into Vancouver B.C. on a rainy day. The train was full of people traveling to various cruise ships, some for that day and some for the next. One … Continue reading →

In a port stop at Yokohama, Japan’s Osanbashi Pier passengers don’t have far to go to find tourist attractions. In fact the pier itself is an attraction with trails and green space on top of the port buildings. From our … Continue reading →

Yokohama Cruise Ship Port Osanbashi Pier in Yokohama, Japan is an attraction in itself with green spaces and a rooftop park with floorboards that mimic rolling waves. Though the architecture resembles a skate park skateboarding is not allowed. The pier … Continue reading →

Holland America Westerdam slowly glided into port in Hakodate, Japan escorted not only by the usual tugs, but also by a boat with Welcome to Hakodate painted in large bold letters easily readable from neighboring ships on its side. This … Continue reading →

Holland America honors all past guests by inducting them into the Mariner Society, which is what they call their loyalty program. For every subsequent cruise Mariners earn more points. Enough points increases the ranking to earn more privileges. Just one … Continue reading →

Oosterdam Hits and Misses Every ship has things to like about it, and usually something not so great. Of course what people like or not is always a matter of opinion. One person’s absolute favorite thing about any particular ship … Continue reading →

Kodiak is one of Alaska’s lesser visited cruise ports with just a few mostly smaller cruise ships visiting each summer. Because of this the port currently remains as it was before cruise ships came to town rather than having the … Continue reading →

Cruise food varies greatly from line to line, even from ship to ship on the same line. Sometimes it even varies from one sailing to the next on the same ship. Menus change over time. Sometimes they change due to … Continue reading →

In a span of just a few hundred years Glacier Bay went from a fertile valley where native Tlingit people lived in the 1600’s with the Grand Pacific Glacier on high mountain ridges above the valley to completely buried in … Continue reading →